Category Archives: Announcements

That’s what you get for upgrading things: they break. In this case, we upgraded WordPress to the latest version, and somehow borked our navigation links in the process. So yeah, you can’t hit “Next” or “Previous” at the bottom of the page, like you usually can. We should have a fix soon. We think.

And if a WordPress guru reads this site, we could probably use your help right about now. We’ll even pay.

You know you’re living the life when you can walk to work in your PJs, unshaven and slightly smelly, and still get paid. That’s where the sponsors come in; without them we’d actually have to look presentable for most of the day, and for this freedom we’d like to thank them.

PayPerPost
The company allows you to monetize your blog by writing reviews for cash. Ever since they tweaked their business model to force clear disclosure with every post, we’ve started liking them.

Wicked Lasers
Long time readers of the site know just how great the lasers this company makes are (is this even grammatically correct?). If you’ve got the cash to spare, you’ll be amazed at how popular you can be with one of these babies in your hand.

Dell
Dell needs no introduction, let alone a description. One of the world’s largest PC makers happens to believe we’re worthy of some of their advertising dollars, and we’re flattered.

Rackspace
If your hosting needs have skyrocketed into the industrial league, you’re going to want to give Rackspace a thought. These guys have massive infrastructure, and offer “fanatical support”. We’ve heard nothing but good things, and they want our readers to know about them as well.

Allright, so I’m caving in. I’m not relishing spending my afternoon sending Joost invites, but I love you people. So I’m giving 30 away, that I’ll pick randomly from whomever leaves a comment on this post. I’m closing the comments Friday 11:59 EST, so get yours in before then.

Just give me your name, and type the email address where it goes, but not in the actual comment field, unless you want to share it with the world. I do need a first and last name, though it probably doesn’t matter if you borrow it from your favorite pr0n star or whatever.

You should know Joost is kind of clogged at the moment, under the weight of all the new invites circulating, so be patient.

[ Update: Comments are now closed. I’ll pick 30 from everyone that left one. Thanks for participating, and we might have another one like this next week if there’s enough interest. Ha! -Ed. ]

Yeah, looks like we’re moving around a lot. That’s because we are. The Dedicated Virtual server at Media Temple was a nice and fast, but a little tight. It didn’t scale and just getting on the front page of Digg would bring it to its knees. We decided to actually downgrade, to The Grid, for its scalability. We don’t need no steenking root access. We’ll stay there for a little bit to see how things go. If you see this message, you’re getting OhGizmo from the Grid.

If you’ve been following our server saga, you’ll probably realize this is our second move in less than two months. We went from Dreamhost, to Bluehost, and now we got us a server at Media Temple. Why the move? Well, Bluehost’s decent. It’s fast and rarely goes down. But when you get on Digg, they slap you with a CPU quota that disables your account until the load is manageable. That means tons of lost traffic, and a tarnished image (those idiots with a blog can’t even handle a Digging! FTW!!).

Yeah, sure, we should have expected that on a shared server, bla bla. The sales guy I spoke to before the move should have told me about it all the same. Even when specifically asked if their servers could handle a Digging, or Slashdotting, ever the salesman, he answered “Yes!”. And I, ever the fool, fell for it. The worst part? They don’t even offer dedicated! Yes, there I was (three times over the last month), begging them to let me throw some money at them to make the problem go away, and they turned me down.

So, now we’re moving all our stuff. Again. If you’re reading this post, it’s because the DNS changes have not propagated over the Internets. I’m not pressing the button until Friday night anyway, but I figured I’d tell you now and give you something to talk about: them crazy OhGizmo! dudes and their stupid server problems.

By the way, if anyone has had negative experiences with Media Temple, now would be a good time to tell us.

Hey Q101 Chicago listeners and readers, it’s time for your Geek Treat once more! Thanks for listening to me on the Fook show this afternoon (every Tuesday at 4:35p); as a bonus you can get yourselves a copy of Photoshop Elements 5.0 & Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 (a $300 value)! Send us an email to the following address: [email protected]. Put “I want the programs!” in the subject line, and you’re all set. We’ll randomly pick one winner per week. Courtesy of Q101 and Ohgizmo.com.

Yeah, so it’s time to be nice to the good folk who make this site happen, and allow us to drink coffee all day (wearing bathrobes, looking scruffy) and call it work.

PayPerPost
The company allows you to monetize your blog by writing reviews for cash. Ever since they tweaked their business model to force clear disclosure with every post, we’ve started liking them.

Wicked Lasers
Long time readers of the site know just how great the lasers this company makes truly are. If you’ve got the cash to spare, you’ll be amazed at how popular you can be with one of these babies in your hand.

Cingular
For anyone living in the USA, this company hardly needs any introduction. It’s the new AT&T, and they make some fine communicatin’ products and such.

Hey Q101 Chicago listeners and readers, it’s time for your Geek Treat once more! Thanks for listening to me on the Fook show this afternoon (every Tuesday at 4:35p); as a bonus you can get yourselves a copy of Photoshop Elements 5.0 & Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 (a $300 value)! Send us an email to the following address: [email protected]. Put “I want the programs!” in the subject line, and you’re all set. We’ll randomly pick one winner per week. Courtesy of Q101 and Ohgizmo.com.

OhGizmo! is a frequently updated blog that focuses on covering items that will appeal to a very specific and often very passionate audience: the geek. Aside from the fare of innovative consumer electronic products, the reader can expect to find news about geek culture, absurd inventions, awe inspiring technology, and an ever growing assortment of articles that we like to think fit within our view of what we’re calling the Geek Lifestyle.